I hope you'll join REUNION HAWAII as we begin a 21 day Daniel Fast. If you're not sure what that is, listen to this:

danielfast1a.m4a

(download)

Click here to download:

danielfast1a.m4a (6.51 MB)

Are you as fed up as I am of playing Whac-a-Mole with the devil? (There's no "k" in whac -- I checked)

Today in America, about 75% of adults identify themselves as Christians.(religioustolerance.org) About 3.8% of Americans identify as gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender. (Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law)  — three point eight percent… less than 4 out of 100. So if we can accept these statistics as roughly correct within a margin of error, there are almost 20 times more Christians in the United States than homosexuals.

It strikes me as odd, then, that my airline of choice, Delta, has an entire section of their website set aside to market to the 9 million American gays (www.delta.com/gaytravel) but NO section of their website targets the 230 million Americans who self-identify as Christians. Is it selective marketing? If so, it is industrial strength stupid, and Jackie Yeaney, Managing Director, Consumer Marketing, Delta Airlines should seriously reconsider those priorities.

I love your airline, Jackie, and fly Delta whenever possible, but it does bother me a bit that you engage in activist economics and use my loyalty to support causes I don't espouse, while ignoring an exponentially larger segment of your potential market.

I went to www.delta.com/christiantravel but “The requested page could not be found on delta.com” — yeah… I didn't think so.

I am hoping to make a trip to Israel in January, one of those study/tours that pastors take to experience the Holy Land first hand. It is a great opportunity, and is even being provided as a scholarship, for which I am grateful. For most people on this trip it will cost them only a few hundred dollars: an inexpensive flight to the point of departure in New Jersey and some lunch and spending money. Being in Hawaii is a disadvantage on this one, as I have to obtain round-trip flights from HNL to EWR at a cost of over $1,000. One thousand-I-don't-have-dollars.

Add the awkward timing of those flights and availble connections, and it is possible that I may have to add one night in a hotel either before or after the Israel trip, which adds another couple of hundred dollars to the "free" trip.

This is one of those times I wish that Star Trek Transporter device was a reality. Beam me to New Jersey, Scotty?

The Hawaii Ministry Development Center presents a six week course Introduction to Mentoring. This 6-week course will help you recognize the contribution of those who have helped shape you into who you are, and the importance of mentoring others. Every leader and everyone who aspires to become a leader should learn the fundamentals of mentoring. 

The class begins on September 27, 2011 and meets weekly* each Tuesday evening from 7:00 until 8:30 PM in the training room at Windward Worship Center • 45-416 Kamehameha Highway in Kaneohe. There is no charge for this non-credit course beyond the cost of obtaining required materials to complete the assignments.

Instructor: Gary Langley
gary.langley@gmail.com

Click here to download:

mentoring class.pdf (1.7 MB)

(download)

Click here to download:

mentoring class.pdf (1.7 MB)

http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/08/04/where-children-sleep/

What an excellent reminder that this is not one world. If your kids start whining that their bedroom flatscreen TV is too small, or their wardrobe is six months old, take them through these photos and show them how some other kids in the world live. (And — while you're at it — why not try to make a difference in the life of some kid living in poverty by going to http://www.compassion.com/ and picking out a child who needs a monthly sponsor?)

Poverty is not just a lack of money; it is a lack of options… a lack of opportunity.

I get asked that a lot… "Don't you EVER sleep?" I live in Hawaii, several time zones west of many of my friends, yet I seem to be online at all hours of the day and night posting on Twitter and Facebook.

(What I took away from three consecutive Sundays at Church of the Highlands)

Highlands is a good church. It’s probably a great church, in many ways. My son, daughter-in-law and now baby granddaughter attend there, and my son plays bass as part of the worship band rotation. I wanted to preface my observations with those statements because I do not want my random thoughts to be misconstrued as criticism, other than as constructive critique.

My thoughts, in no particular order:

• Highlands has grown rapidly and attracted so many people because of a lot of things, including an attitude of excellence, but I attribute it to (a) the worship music — Justin Bradshaw, John Larson, John Mark Dorough and the rest — is great, and (b) the church is committed to prayer. The twice-a-year 21 days of prayer is impressive.

• Chris Hodges is personable, self-effacing and genuine. He comes across as a guy I would enjoy hanging out with, without all the rock-star trappings of some mega-church pastors. I like him.

• At every service I have attended there I seem to recall some statements made to newcomers unaccustomed to expressive worship and contemporary music. While I understand, perhaps, the rationale, I think COTH is past the point where they need to explain, and it almost comes across as an apology sometimes. COTH has nothing to explain, and certainly nothing for which they must apologize.

• The coffee stations are wonderful. As the pastor of a casual church, I appreciate the welcoming nature of that gesture.

• I learned on a previous visit to Highlands the impression made by having well-stocked, clean restrooms with quality products used. It inspired me to recruit a wonderful volunteer who makes our own public school restrooms a hospitality plus, even adding seasonal decorative touches!

• A negative: perhaps it is just a characteristic of rapidly growing mega-churches, but during these three services I recently attended, and the total of maybe ten visits to COTH, not one single person other than the door greeters has ever spoken to me… nobody has approached me in the lobby to introduce themselves, nobody before or after church has walked over and said, “Hi… I’m ____ . Don’t think I’ve seen you here before. Glad you’re here!” (Just sayin’…)

• I had a surprise on a previous trip; I attended a summer evening baptism (wonderful) on the Grant’s Mill campus, at which ice cream treats and soft drinks were served free to the large crowd. When I asked where I could find the recycle bin for my empty can I was greeted by a blank stare, as if that was a question that had never been asked. I would expect Highlands, with a largely upper-middle-class and professional constituency to be setting the example in stewardship of the earth, or — at the very least — selling the aluminum and using the funds for a good cause.

• I wish I could connect COTH with Compassion International. The number of children who could be sponsored out of that church would be incredible.

• The back row bleacher seats? Spectator area. The people we usually go with on our visits like to sit on the back row, but I was itching to sit in the front section on the floor where the sound mix is a little better, and the active worshippers are engaged. That’s not Highlands’ problem, just an observation.

• I greatly appreciate the absence of lasers and hazers and rock concert pyrotechnics at COTH. The use of staging and lighting is subtle and does not distract from worship.  My experience with some other mega-churches has been that they are overly produced and there is way too much show biz. Highlands does a great job of keeping the main thing the main thing.

• This is a large church with a small church heart. On a previous visit I observed a promo video I wanted to show to my tech team. I called the church, asked for the creative team, spoke to a wonderful woman who sent me a link to obtain the video and made it clear that Highlands has no circle-the-wagons and protect our turf attitude.

• I am aware of the complex issues of copyright laws and broadcast restrictions… and I hate them. The worship music at Highlands is excellent, including the original songs, and should be shared far and wide as a gift to the Body of Christ. There should be exceptions and exemptions for the broadcast/webcast of worship services so the musical portion could be included.

• If I lived in the area immediately surrounding the church I’d probably not like them very much. The traffic is overwhelming and the access roads are totally inadequate for the flow of vehicles.

• In order to do back-to-back services and move large crowds in and out effectively, as well as live multi-cast to other campus remote locations it is necessary to at least somewhat run things by the clock, but COTH does a great job of concealing the stopwatch effect. The music is programmed and click-track precise, but it never feels that way. The teaching, likewise, never feels rushed or stretched to fit a time constraint. That is, I suspect, the result of experience and a lot of adjustment over the years. (I would love to have an in-ear and listen to the cues during a service.)

I am not a mega-church guy. I love the smaller church familial and relational closeness, but I applaud large churches like Highlands who have grown large without growing arrogant.

A few years ago I realized that my life would involve more air travel than it had in the past, so I picked one airline for my travels so I would maximize mileage points. I picked Delta. Today I have been questioning that choice.

I stuck with Delta when you absorbed Northwest airlines and started putting those horrible Boeing 757's on Hawaii routes. Talk about a misery maker! One skinny aisle with 3 cramped seats on either side with leg room only fit for tiny people. There are no flights from Hawaii shorter than about 5 hours, and 5 hours on a 757 is torture.

I stuck with you when you started charging baggage fees, and even got a Delta branded Amex card to help avoid those fees. I defended you when you took a bad P.R. hit for stupidly charging returning service people for their military gear bags. I have never been offered a courtesy upgrade, even on half-empty flights.

I opted for Delta SkyMiles on all my Korean Air flights because I hoped to accumulate more SkyMiles and use them when I needed them.
Well, now I need them, and I feel embarrassed by my naive loyalty. My son and his wife are expecting our first grandchild next month, and my wife and I really want to be in Alabama when the baby is born. It's the big deal for which we hoped to cash in miles for the flights. When we discovered they were expecting I checked the SkyMiles mileage requirements and read this:

I think pretty much everyone who sees that chart would understand it to say that an Economy Class flight from Hawaii to the Continental U.S. can be obtained for a range between 20,000 SkyMiles and 45,000 SkyMiles… after all, it does say "Low" and "High" above those numbers.

Imagine my dismay when I attempted to use my 82,000+ miles to book 2 tickets to Atlanta and discovered that ONE ticket would cost me 77,500 miles! So what happened to a range between a low of 20,000 SkyMiles and a high of 45,000 SkyMiles? I was referred to the fine print, written in obfuscatory lawyerly language apparently designed to conceal the reality. Read this and see if you see "don't count on that chart above, because it is totally meaningless, and you will have to cash in a LOT more miles than it says, but if we say that outright nobody will sign up."

My future flights — and they are becoming more frequent — will not be booked with a preference for Delta because there's no significant reason to be a loyal to an airline with unclear, evasive rules.